David Cummings on Startups

Category: Product Mgmt

  • Tips for a User’s Conference

    We’re putting on our third annual User’s Conference tomorrow and have 123 registered attendees (sold out!). After having done it for a few years, we’ve come up with some recommendations for those who haven’t done one before:

    • Charge 50% more than you think to cover costs as there are always expenses you didn’t anticipate (shuttle buses, swag, videographers, etc)
    • Book the least number of rooms possible to still get a good rate — you don’t want to be on the hook for extra rooms and hotels will always add more at your rate once you’ve filled your allotment
    • Use a nice conference center and hotel — we made the mistake last year of using a nice brand hotel that was 20 years old and woefully out of date. The conference is a reflection of your company.
    • Make sure your company employees know that the conference is a time to engage with customers and prospects — don’t just chat with other employees.
    • Have fun!

    I’m a big proponent of User’s Conferences and recommend them as a great way to engage with your customer community.

  • What’s your one liner?

    I was talking to two young entrepreneurs last Monday at Startup Riot (thanks Sanjay) about their stealth company. After asking tons of questions, I was finally able to distill it down and come up with a simple one liner. Fortunately, I read as many technology and entrepreneur blogs as I can (via Google Reader, of course) and had lots of example companies to choose from when coming up with the one liner.

    Why is it so difficult?

    Well, often times it is technology based, and sophisticated at that, so it is difficult to explain in layman’s terms. I recommend coming up with two one liners: one for technologists and one for your grandmother. Here are the one liners for one of my products:

    • Technologists: B2B Ning.com with CMS
    • Grandmother: Tools to allow people to communicate on a website and update webpages

    What are your one liners?

  • A New Product’s Brand

    Working on the brand for a new product is an interesting and rewording part of the development cycle. I like to wait until after the product is in an alpha state to start the branding process as it takes a while to understand the feel and personality of the application. The first and most important part of the brand is the logo. Nowadays, it is easy and cheap to get a logo done. I’d recommend looking at one of the following:

  • Rapid Improvement with SaaS = Reference Customers

    Another SaaS benefit that isn’t readily apparent before going live is the relationship between quick product enhancements and reference customers. Because you can update and enhance the product so fast, customers that make small requests can see the changes within a matter of days or weeks (assuming you accept the tweak and it fits in your opinionated vision!). This goes a long way towards having them become a reference account that you can use for future prospects. With installed software, it is difficult and time consuming to keep making little patches so customers often have to wait several months for the release cycle to happen before they can actually appreciate that your team has been working hard on their request.

    Near instant gratification with product change requests is something many clients have never experienced. Please make sure and temper expectations that it won’t always happen but that you’ll always be there to hear them out and be understanding.

  • New Product Pricing

    Pricing for a new product is really just a shot in the dark. What features go into what editions? What are the up-sell hooks? In my experience it is much easier to lower prices than to raise them. I’d recommend starting out with a price that is twice what you feel is right. Why? It is very easy to give “preferred customer discounts” and come down on the pricing, making the new client feel special. Throw in membership to your “product advisory council” and you’re golden.

    Another huge consideration: credit card price range or CFO price range. This is a big deal. Having a buyer be able to put the product or monthly fee on their credit card is a much easier sale than one that requires a purchase order and needs sign-off from the CFO. Wait, aren’t there plenty of deals between the $1,000 (credit card) and $50,000 (CFO sign-off) range? Yes, those are available but you don’t want to play in that space. The amount of time to complete a $20,000 deal is the same effort as a $50,000 deal. If you have to do a full-service, long sales cycle process, make sure your package is at least $50,000.

    My final thoughts: don’t spend much time on pricing, go to market quickly, and listen to your prospects.

  • Products Roadmaps

    Does your company make product roadmaps available? I’ve always tried to avoid providing product roadmaps for prospects and customers for several reasons:

    • Agile products need to adapt on a monthly or quarterly basis
    • Similarily, the market changes too fast to know what will be important in 12 months
    • If they see something they want and it doesn’t get done they won’t be as satisfied (better to under promise and over deliver)

    Instead of providing a roadmap, find out what is important to your prospect or customer and make sure it meets their needs now. Sure, it won’t be 100% of what they want but it is better to provide real value now than to hope it will be ready in the future. Hope is not a strategy.